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Reprinted from the October, 1980 National Model Railroad Association Bulletin
Dr. Perspiro's Tubular Wind Passing Machine
text and drawings by Gerry Leone
Railroad friends, gather 'round. Ya say ya spent hours and hours weatherin' some of yer cars, and now ya can't tell the weathered ones from the new ones? Ya say the dust is so high the gons look like boxes? Ya say ya can't remember what your roofwalks look like? Is that what's ailing you, Bunky?
WELL LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO THE INVENTION OF A LIFETIME. The invention that'll cure what ails your dusty, dirty rolling stock. It's Dr. Perspiro's Tubular Wind Passing Machine. Your airbrush compressor makes the wind, your cars pass beneath the magic tube, your problems are solved.
Now of course you'll need an air compressor for this handy little gadget. (it doesn't work too well without one.) But aside from that and the hose that connects the compressor to your airbrush, all you'll need is a short length of tubing and a very small drill (about a #70). Starting to get the picture?
First, you're going to have to make some sort of linkage between the air hose and tubing. I found that my Badger air hose coupling would fit exactly into a 9/32" o.d. brass tube. However, you may want to find a piece of tubing that can be threaded to fit your coupling more securely --especially if you've got a powerful compressor.
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Seal your tubing by flattening one end and soldering it shut. About 3"-3 1/2" from that sealed end, make two 45-degree saw cuts at right angles to each other, and remove the small section of tube. (See illustration) Bend the tube 90-degrees and solder or epoxy it closed and leak-free.
Holding the tube in a vise with the long leg facing up, drill a few very small holes in the short leg. I found that five #70 holes, spaced about 1/4" apart, worked out fairly well. More or larger holes tended to decrease the effectiveness of the air streams. (My compressor ain't the greatest.)
You now hold in your hands the Wind Passing Machine in its crudest form. (Not much magic, huh?) How you mount it above one of the tracks on your layout will depend on your own ingenuity. Properly disguised, the Wind Passing Machine can be fitted into an overpass or tunnel portal. However, I soldered brass straps to the tube and screwed them directly into the benchwork on a hidden return loop.
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I also made one additional bend so that the open end of the tube which receives the airbrush hose would be flush with the sides of the benchwork. That way I don't have to crawl under the layout to insert the air hose.
You can test the Wind Passing Machine by spraying a few of your cars with water and passing them beneath it. Make any necessary adjustments if the water droplets show you the air holes aren't centered over the track.
A few words of advice on using this modern-day miracle: spend a couple of hours washing all the gunk off the tops of your rolling stock. Use Q-tips, tooth brushes, whatever. The Wind Passing Machine will keep the fresh dust off, but it won't have any effect on years of accumulated cigarette smoke residue, dust, Pepsi, etc.
Once your rolling stock is clean, put the Machine into regular service. I found that cleaning just the first way freight every operating sessions does the trick. And since all cars eventually find themselves on that first train, they'll all be blown dustless at least once every few months.
Also, be sure to use your NMRA clearance gauge when you mount the Machine over the track. Remember, you want to blow the dust from the tops of the cars, not scrape it off.